Rediscovering Cinema Past

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Angels Among Us

With the impact of It’s A Wonderful Life in our home growing up, it’s hard not to wonder as a child if I too had my very own Clarence looking over my shoulder in times of need. Given the moment to reflect, each and every one of us may have that one moment in time when things could have turned out far worse than you’d care to imagine. It might be something you’ve never even shared with anyone else but it’s forever imprinted in your memory.

Perhaps it was your very own version of Clarence looking out for you.

“Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends. “ Henry Travers as Clarence.

“Uncle Mortimer, let him hear this. “ Shemp Howard playing games on Moe and Larry in Heavenly Daze

The long arm of television memories presents us with this trio of Angels. One for the boys.

“Good person? Well, I was a cow hand… out, out west. And one Christmas, a long, long time ago, I was riding along the Snake River, and I heard this little… kid, uh, yelling to somebody, and, uh, so I jumped into the river to save him. Well, I saved him, all right, but I got myself drowned. ‘Cause I didn’t know how to swim. And, um, after that they, they made me a Christmas angel. “ Harry Dean Stanton as the memorable Gideon in One Magic Christmas.

Dolly meets Roddy…… sure. Why not.

Ernest Borgnine is easily one of my favorite actors. He’s just always been there throughout my years growing up in both movies on late night TV and the shows that populated our viewing time on television. There is no better example of this than his memorable appearance as the wise Jonathan for his guest role as the angel who looks after the lost Laura Ingalls in Little House On the Prairie. A classic episode of a classic TV show aimed at the entire family.

“I’m going to buy them their Christmas turkey. “ ………………… “”Buy”? Do you really mean “buy”? “ ……………….. “Yes, buy! In the Spirit of Christmas. The hard part’s going to be stealing the money to pay for it. “ Bogie exchanging Christmas cheer with Ray while Peter looks on in We’re No Angels.

Angel Eyes……. not quite the Angel I was thinking of but hard to resist. Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Lee Van wasn’t the only Angel of questionable ethics in cinema history. How about the earth shattering beauty of Jean Simmons in Angel Face from 1952.

In the spirit of the season and this post, here’s a wonderful song from the Country group Alabama appropriately titled Angels Among Us. Lastly, don’t forget “Every time you hear a bell ring, it means that some angel’s just got his wings. “